Games of Yore: Strike Commander

Sometimes I indulge in a few reminiscences of the games we old geezers played way back in the last millennium. This time it is: Strike Commander!

Strike Commander is a Chris Roberts game, so you know the next sentence: For its time Strike Commander boosted incredible graphics (Non-flat surfaces you could crash into!) and incredible hardware demands. It was rated top game in its category for years by most game magazines, mostly for its storytelling and gameplay.

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The game puts you into the cockpit (and later as the leader) of an F-16 mercenary squadron called “Wildcats”
The Wildcats are led by Stern, who has morals, which is sort of a drawback in a mercenary leader. Stern would often not do missions too shady, which earns him heartfelt laughter from his friend-rival-enemy Prideaux, leader of the squadron “Jackals”.

The setting is “near future” 2011 in Istanbul. After the Fall of the Soviet Union (the game is from 1993) the middle east area destabilized dramatically and mercenary fighters are employed everywhere. Istanbul has given fighter squads a sort of diplomatic immunity and is profiteering from this industry.

Istanbul cafe “Selim’s” is also the place where you get your mission and talk to squad mates. It is a very atmospheric place – as everything in this game. I especially like the “mission accomplished” music. The CD version had full speech.

All missions were given in “filmed” talks and all the conversations used that movie like approach. Mostly only their mouth's moved, but it was state-of-the-art at that time.

Missions and Teammates

(The guy does the easy mode: unlimited ammo and no g-effects. Tsts!)

A typical wildcat mission can run like this: Patrol a waypoint, shoot down enemy airplanes. Then protect a Hercules transport plane, then bombard a few tanks and as last touch make craters into a runway using special bombs.

As far as I can remember there is only one mission where you do all 4 of that, but that is more or less the span of missions. The missions are mostly challenging, but manageable. Just some bombing runs are very hard because of limited bombs on your plane.
There is one mission where you have to bomb a lot of moving targets AND crater a runway. You have I think two chances to miss or you fail the mission. I HATE that mission!

Later in the game you choose which mission to do next, which bombs and missiles you buy (expensive!) and your wingman. The wingmans really make a difference! One is good at bombing, one at using missiles, one uses his gun to shoot down enemy airplanes. I always chose this one, he was nearly as good with his gun then I was! And after all that management it was finally time to take off.

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Handbook

But probably the best piece of the game was the handbook.
As you can see the handbook mimics a mercenary magazine from the game world. That it is indeed the Strike Commander handbook is only visible in the upper left corner: Includes Strike Commander Technical Manual

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source linking to original place, but you should have a look at the website http://fabiensanglard.net/reverse_engineering_strike_commander/index.php

And that is how that book really was. The actual “how you play” took some pages, but was just a necessary addon to the magazine that was there to give you the games atmosphere. And boy, did it do that!!!

As the cover shows, it included two stories and an interview. But the stories where not all. The magazine was filled with other things, like ads for mercenary insurances, cheap weapons and such likes. Last page was a full-page ad by “Adnan’s Place” with a big discount on AMRAAMs!

(Full handbook text on the archive.org, but not formatted and without the ads: https://archive.org/stream/StrikeCommanderManual/StrikeCommanderManual_djvu.txt )

The first story was about the Wildcats, how they “retrieve” a super-ultra-mega credit card (only the 10 wealthiest people in the world can have one) and how much destruction the wildcats had to do to get it back – and how the actual retrieving was just a little small talk between the target and the VIP the Wildcats carried and protected.
I especially like the moment when an anarchic Wildcat “accidentally” destroys an antique vase the target is very proud of.

The second story is about “Gule Gule”, a paid assassin and his first mission. A squadron has done its job with heavy losses and now the employer does not pay, knowing the rest of the squadron cannot collect their payment by force (a much used tactic by employers). So the family of the dead and near-dead gather their money to pay an assassin…
Gule Gule really manages to get his target and the non-payer starts to cry “let me live!”. Gule Gule is so disgusted that he takes out his Ghurkha knife and kills very very slowly and bloody, saying “Gule Gule!”, which means goodbye. He films it and that film makes the round. That is how that assassin got his name.
But if his target is strong and does not cry, he just shots the target in the head. You may be dead, but act like a dead man at least ;)
A really good written story.

So if you don’t want a visit from someone even more fear-inspiring then this one, be a good boy and pay your mercenaries!

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